Category: rigged

“The voter receipt that the Comelec is to issue on Election Day will be incomplete. It will contain only the names of candidates that the voter is to mark on the ballot. Absent will be other crucial data: the location (province, city, municipality, district) and number of the precinct; the PCOS number; and the ballot number, time and date.

Thus the purpose of the receipt – as voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) – would be defeated. It would not serve to foil election fraud. On the contrary, it would fool voters that the balloting is clean.

Such slip of paper would be as worthless as fake receipts that cheating sellers give out. Official Receipts must contain not only the name of the buyer, the item purchased, and the amount. It must detail the seller’s name, address, TIN (tax identification number); BIR approval; and date (if possible also time and place) of transaction. An incomplete receipt cannot serve the buyer as proof of purchase, or tax deduction. Even the cheating seller later can deny issuing such false O.R. That’s why such fake is prohibited. Yet it proliferates, due to spotty law enforcement.

If incomplete, the VVPAT too is illegal and contrary to enforcement order of the Supreme Court. The Election Automation Act of 2008 requires the VVPAT as one of five basic security safeguards of the vote counting machine (VCM). The VVPAT serves two roles: First, on the spot, it is the voter’s countercheck if his assigned VCM reads his ballot right. Second, as paper audit trail, it is the electorate’s countercheck if all the 97,500 VCMs counted and transmitted the votes right.”